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Rare Still Leery of Downloadable Content
GamesIndustry.biz reports on comments by Rare lead designer Gregg Mayles, who has gone on record saying that Rare will only do downloadable content if there is a need. The popularity of their Viva Piñata title notwithstanding, the company has no interest in making content if there is no interest. From the article: "'We've got plenty of ideas for what we can do with downloadable content because Piñata is such a unique game ... But the jury is still out.' However, the team does still see the potential of Xbox Live and the push for downloadable content, with Viva Piñata offering interaction between players over the service. 'That vision of sending Piñata to each other was around before Xbox Live even existed. That's why [Viva Piñata] began life on a handheld PDA device because we wanted one machine that could communicate with another,' revealed Mayles."
"When Nintendo passed on buying Rare Perfect Dark Zero had been in development for 12 months, Kameo for 18 and both of those games were only released in 2005 (meaning they were in development for 5+ years)."
Neither Kameo no Perfect Dark Zero were that great. I have fond memories of Goldeneye, Diddy Kong Racing and Conkers Bad Fur Day, but the nostalgia may be clouding my judgement. Going back and playing these games now, they're not bad for a quick laugh, but they're not holding the attention the way I remember it. Where they really a great developer at all? Three stand out games and a bunch of other really, really ordinary titles doesn't really scream greatness to me. Especially considering the long development cycle of the games you mentioned, shouldn't the end result have been something truly outstanding?
It think it's important to note that with the exception of sports games (which generally have gamer pics for every team) Kameo and PDZ both rank in the top 5 for games with the most number of items available for download. Kameo has 38 items available for download. From strategy videos to gamer pics, themes, and even skin packs that are worth less then horse armor and perfect Dark Zero has 15 items.
You'd think they'd be all over offering content for for a game where it actually makes sense. Perhaps they're soured by poor sales of Seasonally themed Kameo skins...
Protip: maybe people don't want to buy insignificant chachkis for a mediocre game that only takes a few hours to complete. Maybe, just maybe, you'd have more success selling downloads of things that, I don't know, improve, extend, or refresh the gamplay?
Collector's Edition
Downloadable content doesn't necessarily means unfinished/unpolished content - it means episodic content. Are you gonna tell me that all MMOs out there are in fact botched products only rushed out to make a buck ?
i think not.
downloadable content is only the "online" version of single player/offline games.
If you look at it, downloadable content just means "make money in the same business model MMOs do".
I don't even see why its called a risk to begin with. They don't call it World of Warcrack for nothing, it works. you buy a game for 20ish bucks. you play the basic version for a few hours then, if you like it, you buy the next module/ unlock other character / new music / new art for the game. its really really basic and working already.
BUT! you need a good game to begin with, thats why a lot of MMOs are not making a lot of money, they're not good enough.
And like i said in the beginning, downloadable content doesnt mean botching your product, it means releasing a solid base game and focusing all the resources on keeping the player base and creating good downloadable content.
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Are you kidding? The Xbox systems easily have more good games than the Nintendo systems. Nintendo has pretty much been supporting their past couple of systems by themselves. Rare is a media darling like Nintendo themselves so their games tend to get overrated in general. I think that would have held true on any platform. But that's starting to change. PDZ recently made a top 10 list of the worst launch games ever over at Joystiq. Maybe you don't play games that often or are simply unfamiliar with console in general, but most of the Xbox fan base doesn't consider PDZ or Kameo a step up from anything.
you're definatly missing
the donkey kong country series, to me that trilogy
raised the quality of 2D platformers to a new high
and there is also killer instinct
man those were the days